


Youth & Experience

by Ultra



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Family, Friendship/Love, Love, Moving On, Post-At World's End, Reminiscing, Ten Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-15
Updated: 2010-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-04 07:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15836208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: It is ten years after AWE and Will is coming ashore to see Elizabeth. They both have a confession to make about how their lives have changed, and Elizabeth in particular is worried how Will might take her news.





	1. Ten Years Later

It wasn’t quite the reunion they had intended. Apart ten years, Elizabeth and William were eager enough to see each other, and there was no doubt they had missed their dearest friend in the world. The worry for both for them was that the feelings they had once harboured when they were younger, the foolish childish dreams of an everlasting romance, had long since died. They both had something to say, something that would not come easily, and each of them was as determined as the other to deliver the blow quickly and sharply, so the pain would be over as fast as possible.

“I have a confession,” they said, almost exactly as one just moments after their initial embrace, there on the beach.

Twin bursts of almost nervous laughter escaped their lips then as they stared at each other, him having not aged a day in all these years, her looking as if she barely had herself, though in each others eyes they saw the truth. They had both grown up a lot this past decade, they had been forced to by all that had occurred in their still young lives. Now came the moment when they must share not the kisses and such they had expected to make up much of their reunion when they first parted ten years ago, but a serious conversation about what had become of them.

“Ladies first,” Will insisted as he and the woman he had once seen as his whole world sat down on the nearest rocky patch on the beach.

“And yet I am no lady,” Elizabeth told him. “A great many other things, but no lady, Will, not anymore,” she explained. “If I ever was, in fact.”

“You may not think me a gentleman either when my turn comes to confess,” he admitted, hardly able to meet her eyes, “but I shall not say more until you have spoken,” he promised, waiting for her to say whatever had her frowning so hard.

“Will, when you left here... I understood why and I accepted it,” she tried to tell him, all awkwardness and worry as she did so. “I thought one day every ten years would be enough.”

“But it isn’t,” he said for her when it seemed she dare not, and as Elizabeth met his eyes again, she realised that perhaps he was suffering just as she was, that his confession tended in the same direction as that she must make.

The look they shared confirmed the suspicions they had both harboured too long and laughter borne out of relief escaped both his lips as well as hers at the realisation of it. Love still existed between them, but not enough romance to sustain such a relationship as this. Perhaps in a different world, a place where they might have been together properly, a real married couple in all senses of the word. As it was, their situation was next to impossible, and they had both strayed from the marriage vows made aboard the Black Pearl during an almighty battle ten long years ago.

“What’s her name?” asked Elizabeth easily and Will looked and felt just a little odd as he answered her with a smile that could not be helped.

“Isis,” he confessed. “We ran across a ship that had got into trouble, she was one of a handful of survivors. She came aboard the Dutchman and... well, I realised that falling in love was very different to what I had first believed.”

“It’s okay, Will,” Elizabeth assured him, a hand to his face making him look at her when he tried to shy away. “I do understand. Something very similar happened to me, though the last person you would ever expect caused it.”

The strangest smirk of a smile formed on her one-time husband’s lips then and she hardly knew how to react when he explained the look he couldn’t shift from his face.

“It’s Jack, isn’t it?” he guessed so easily that Elizabeth was stunned enough she almost toppled backwards off the rock upon which she was perched. “Elizabeth, it could never be anyone else. No man was ever going to measure up in your eyes. I ought to have known it years ago.”

Elizabeth was incensed by the apparent humour William Turner found in a situation she had been puzzling over too long. Her love for Jack Sparrow seemed obvious to all but her and it made her quite angry to realise it. She had been worrying almost daily about facing Will today with the news that she could no longer be his, that for years now her heart had dwelled elsewhere with a man he once called a friend. She worried he might think badly of her and of Jack, and she wanted neither of those things. Now she was just angry that he could be so flippant, she had at least expected him to be somewhat concerned, even if it would have made things more awkward.

With a huff of indignation she rose from her ‘seat’ and walked a few steps away, though stomped might’ve been a more appropriate word, for that was how it seemed to Will.

“Elizabeth!” he called, going after her, his fingers closing around her wrist and pulling her back. “Please, don’t be like that,” he urged her. “I did not mean for you to think I was laughing at you, it was never my intention.”

Since he knew her temper, Will was glad to see her soften then, her eyes losing the fire he had once loved so much, her tone even and calm when she spoke at last.

“I know,” she said reasonably. “I think perhaps I am strangely disappointed,” she noted with some concern. “Perhaps I selfishly hoped you would be jealous,” she admitted, feeling ridiculous just saying so, but Will didn’t seem to mind her confession at all.

“Perhaps I am guilty of the same,” he admitted, encouraging her to sit down with him again and resume their conversation. “Though truthfully, I am glad we might talk as adults on this subject. I should genuinely like to know how you finally came to realise that Jack was the man you truly loved,” he asked, and though Elizabeth was still not entirely convinced he wasn’t poking fun at her, she decided she would tell him the tale if that was what he wished to hear.

For one thing, it would make her feel better to share it, and for another she would not deny a man condemned to sail the seas for ten years at a time, the opportunity to do whatever he wished with his one day here on land. His was perhaps an odd request, to hear the tale of how his former wife came to be swept off her feet by their mutual friend, but if it was what he wanted to hear...

“I don’t even know how it began,” she said in all honesty. “I was missing you terribly, the greatest friend I had ever known in my life.” She smiled as Will did the same. “When Jack appeared on my doorstep, I thought I was glad only for the familiar face...”

_...Nine and a half years ago..._

The recently married Mrs Elizabeth Turner, formerly the Pirate King Miss Elizabeth Swann, was above and beyond all else very lonely. She knew she would miss her husband, that was to be expected, but she had not quite realised how much she would miss other things, other people... Life at sea was something many chose and came to hate, and yet this had been turned on its head where Elizabeth was concerned. She had never really meant to be a sea-fairing lass, but so easily she had fallen into such a role, and now she was once again land-locked, she found she missed the open ocean far more than she ever imagined she could. So far from loving the prospect of being here, making a home for a husband who would scarcely see it, she now longed for more, for the salt-spray in her face, for the wind in her hair, for the camaraderie of male company, for everything she had aboard the Black Pearl, including its Captain.

It was strange to miss Jack Sparrow, but she did. Elizabeth had never thought she could feel his loss like this, not since she had condemned him to Davy Jones’ Locker. Now she realised that those overwhelming feelings of guilt she had experienced when she had sent her friend to his own personal hell were tinged with more, with friendship, with affection, with a strange sort of love perhaps?

“Pirate,” she whispered to herself as she contemplated the view from her window, the one that barely gave her sight of her precious sea at all. “Always a pirate.” She smiled wryly, wondering at a memory that felt like too far away.

Jack was the first to refer to her that way, and though he surely meant to wound her with that word, he had done quite the opposite. Pirate King came next as a title, voted in by the self-same man that had dubbed her as one of his own kind, so to speak. These titles fitted her, or so Elizabeth thought, though others might object. What made the smile she now wore start to fade from her face was one particular guilty thought rearing its ugly head for what was most definitely not the first time in these past six months. Her new title, Mrs Turner, did not feel as if it suited her at all. Though she did love Will and craved his company here and now, she could not feel entirely settled in her position as his wife. It made her sad to think about it, guilt-ridden and unworthy of a man who had died for her. It did not help that there was no-one to speak to on such a subject. She had made few friends here, felt isolated and lost in such a way as she never had out at sea, where most found loneliness.

A knock on her door brought Elizabeth out of her silent reverie in an instant. She frowned as she realised she hadn’t an idea who might be calling on her, but soon reasoned it could only be one of the town’s tradesman wanting payment or similar. Her sword by the door was a constant comfort to her, as she never quite knew who she would come across here. Cautiously, Elizabeth moved to the door and pulled it open, somewhat surprised to find nobody there. Looking left, right, and forwards down the road further into town still finding nobody there, Elizabeth was about to turn around and head straight back into the house when suddenly she felt a presence. Hands covered her eyes from behind and she might have struggled or screamed were it not for the fact she already knew who the mystery man just had to be. In any case, had she not guessed before, she knew him the very moment he opened his mouth and spoke.

“Guess who, luv?” he asked in such familiar tones, that a smile was immediately upon Elizabeth’s lips.

“Could it be the infamous _Captain_ Jack Sparrow?” she said, very deliberately and with a giggle she could not help at all as she turned to face him.

“In the very fine flesh, as you see, my fair Pirate Captain.” He grinned back at her, with an over-the-top bowing gesture that made her laugh all the more.

“Oh, it’s so wonderful to see you!” she enthused, fairly throwing herself into his arms just the moment he was upright again.

Jack was somewhat surprised by her reaction to his presence, though none the less pleased by it as he took full advantage of the fact there was a young, good-looking woman with her body pressed very close to his own. Squeezing her tight, he breathed in the very scent of her and enjoyed the warmth of her against him.

“If only I’d known the warm inviting welcome I might get, Lizzy, I’d’ve dropped by sooner,” he said, his voice low in her ear and with words said in such a tone as to make her shudder in a far nicer way than even she really expected.

“You really are the most determined flirt,” she accused him with a roll of her eyes, laughing off his advances as she so often had before, though it was true enough that she was thrilled to see him and would like to believe he felt the same about being here. “Come inside, you must tell me all your latest adventures!” she told him, like an over-excited child as she dragged him into the house.

“Blimey, luv,” he declared as she yanked him inside. “Give a fella a chance to get his bearings, or are you just so desperate to get me out of the view of the general public, have your wicked way with ol’ Jack behind closed doors?” He smirked in that way that only he could.

“Jack,” she said with a warning look that he paid heed to, however sorely he was tempted to continue in a similar vein.

“As the lady wishes, a change of subject,” he said as they both sat down at the table. “I have here in my possession a little something that might be of interest to a lady who’s heroic husband, our dear William, might appreciate.”

Elizabeth knew she must’ve shown her confusion on her face then from the way Jack looked at her. All was soon revealed, however, as a bottle was pulled from some inside pocket and placed on the table before her.

“Thing of it is, I found a map,” he explained with a grin, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the table, one ankle crossed over the other. “Made the Fountain of Youth somewhat easier to find, not easy as easy could be of course, but easier than with no map at all,” he said thoughtfully. “And that, dearest Lizzy, is a sample of the waters from said fountain.”

Though Elizabeth wondered just how much truth there was in the tale Jack told, the thoughtfulness of his actions certainly had her smiling. That it would even occur to him that she might want this made her feel quite overwhelmed and strangely emotional. He had mentioned Will, and she knew why. He would not age as she would, and seeing her only one day every ten years was going to get more and more awkward as time marched on. With such a gift as this, presuming it to work as the legend told, she could be as he was forever.

“Stay young and beautiful for him,” she whispered as she picked up the glass bottle and turned it over in her hands, studying the contents that looked like nothing but ordinary water.

“Well, young certainly,” Jack agreed. “Not sure a woman such as yourself should need any help on the side of beauty, Lizzy,” he told her, surprised to see not a smirk on her lips or the usual role of her eyes, but instead tears forming and sliding down her cheeks unchecked. “Bugger,” he swore when he realised his own gift had been the apparent cause of her distress.

It was only then that Elizabeth seemed to notice she’d even been crying, quickly wiping away her tears and wishing them forgotten.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised, forcing a watery smile. “Thank you for the kind gift, Jack. Honestly, I am... I’m so grateful...” she said, emotion taking her voice away in a moment and great sobs suddenly shaking her body so hard that it hurt.

She was up from the table, turning her back on her friend and hiding her face as she became a heaving mass of tears. Not often confronted by women in such a sate, Jack Sparrow wasn’t exactly sure what to do. He was usually in the company of men, who were to be laughed at, beaten, or shot for showing such emotions. The women he knew were hard as nails and usually laughing or even screaming happily in his company, not blubbering like babies. It left the pirate in quite a quandary on how to react.

“C’mon now, luv,” he urged her as he stood behind her. “There, there,” he said, patting her shoulder awkwardly. “Wasn’t the idea to put you in such a state. Never really thought mention of dear old Will would cause such an upset.”

“It’s not your fault.” Elizabeth coughed and hicupped, trying desperately not to cry any more but finding it impossible. “I just... Why do I feel like this?” she asked, desperately uncertain of her own heart right now as she turned into a startled Jack’s embrace once again.

Twice in as many minutes, Captain Sparrow found himself enjoying the closeness of a young woman he had come to convince himself was never meant to be his, and yet in moments like this he quite forgot the reasons why. Elizabeth Swann was indeed the most singular of women, and though her name might be Turner now, she was as she always had been; beautiful, strong, determined, and a million other qualities he couldn’t even begin to describe. He’d never known another like her and doubted he ever would. Had things been different... No, he would not dwell on what might’ve been, it never did any good at all.

“You keep crying all over me like this, Lizzy,” he warned her, “might have to have your title removed. ‘S not the done thing for a Pirate King, savvy?” he teased her, glad when he was pretty sure he heard a muffled laugh against his shoulder.

Still, when she moved to look at him then the tracks of her tears were clear on her face, and her eyes showed far too much pain for Jack’s liking. In moments like this, so close as they were, he recalled a day when they were the only two left aboard the Black Pearl, and she had duped him into staying behind as bait for the Kracken. In the minute or two leading up to the moment when the shackles snapped closed around his wrist, he had actually believed Lizzy felt something for him. A fools wish perhaps, but even now he wondered on it.

“I was happier then.” She sniffed, finding a small smile as Jack fished a not quite clean hanky out of his pocket and handed it to her. “‘Pirate’ suited me better than ‘wife’ perhaps,” she considered, looking away, feeling stupid for behaving this way in front of a man she had tried to only ever show strength in front of, though Jack didn’t seem to mind at all.

“This water stuff, ‘s not the only drink I brought ashore, y’know?” he told her with a smirk. “Might be some rum I could fetch. Could pour us both a healthy measure, and you can tell Uncle Jack all your troubles,” he told her with a wink, not waiting for an answer as he made for the door.

By the time he returned just a few minutes later, Elizabeth was looking more like herself, her face all cleaned up as she sat waiting patiently at the table.

“For the lady,” he said parking a large bottle in front of her, taking his seat once again and showing he had a similar bottle for himself.

It didn’t seem to even occur to her to fetch a cup of some kind as she pulled free the stopper and brought the bottle straight to her lips, gulping down several healthy swigs. Jack watched a moment with widening eyes, before uncorking his own bottle and waving it in her general direction.

“Cheers,” he declared, tipping his head back to take a long drink, though his eyes never left Elizabeth.

She could drink as well as any bloke he knew, that was for certain, and yet looked so bloody beautiful and sexy doing it there wasn’t a chance in all hell that he could forget what she really was. The temptress sent to make his life so much more difficult than it had ever been, and yet without her around things had been, for the most part, undeterminably dull.

“I do miss, Will,” she said in the silence that had gone on too long, the drink loosening her tongue quick enough since it was a long while she had gone without so much as a tot of rum passing her lips. “Every day I miss him but... but more than that, I miss the life,” she lamented, leaning her elbows heavily on the table. “I miss the ship, Jack,” she told him. “The sea, the fresh air, the freedom... and you,” she added with a smile he couldn’t read and wasn’t sure he cared too.

“Well, what woman wouldn’t?” he remarked, cocky as ever as he took another long drink from his own bottle of rum. “Things being as they are, my darling, I’ve a girl in every port and a port for every girl, and only one of me to go around,” he talked in that way of riddles that only he had. “See the hardship?” He shrugged, at which she seemed to be amused.

“Do you remember,” she began, leaning across the table towards him, “that island we were stranded on?” she asked, an eyebrow raised as she recalled a scene not so very far removed from this one, the two of them in happier times, each with a bottle of rum in their hands, enjoying the pleasure of each others company as they danced and sang.

“I remember you destroying all the rum,” said Jack thoughtfully, holding his own bottle tighter in his hand as Elizabeth stared at her own and then at him.

“I remember you trying to seduce me, Captain Sparrow,” she reminded him, as if he ever could have forgotten such a thing.

Whether she was fishing for compliments or playing tricks on him, Jack hadn’t an idea, but at this moment, filling himself with rum and being blessed as he was by a smile on her face in place of previous tears, it didn’t bother the pirate much either way.

“Well, who can blame me, eh?” he said, as he leant in close to her as she was to him. “You were... you _are_ ,” he corrected himself, “a beautiful woman, Elizabeth Swann,” he told her, pushing loose strands of hair away from her cheek as it turned a little pink.

“ _Captain_ Elizabeth Swann,” she corrected him as he so often had her and others, though leaving the use of her maiden name strangely unmentioned.

“True enough,” agreed Jack, noticing the error she had made, perhaps as deliberately as he had, cutting poor Will clean out of the equation apparently.

“Does that make me more or less worthy of seducing now?” she asked flirtatiously with looks and tone that Jack had seen a thousand times before though only once from her.

That day had ended with his wrists chained to the mast of the Pearl and the Kraken bearing down on him alone. Never let it be said that Captain Jack Sparrow did not learn from experience. On this occasion when he allowed himself to be drawn in, his lips finding Elizabeth’s own in a fiery kiss, he ensured she could not dupe him a second time. She was only mildly surprised, when given the chance to breathe again, to find that her hands were held tight in his own, presumably to keep her from causing him any harm. Of course what was more shocking to a now shockingly sober Elizabeth was that she had initiated a kiss with Captain Jack Sparrow on purpose, with absolutely no ulterior moment, and that she had felt so much more in those few moments of passion than she ever could have dreamed of with Will.

Up from her seat in an instant the chair went flying as Elizabeth turned to the window, her hand going absently to her lips that still tingled with sensation. She had not meant for today’s events to go quite like this. Not for a moment had she considered she might make such a move where Jack was concerned, not really. Then she considered, perhaps this was what she had always intended, not just today but from the beginning. Too many thoughts spun in poor Elizabeth’s head and only one was truly clear to her.

“Jack,” she said as she turned back to face him, a little startled to find he was right behind her by now. “When do you set sail again?” she asked him, at which he frowned.

“Why’d you ask, luv?” he wondered. “’Cause I can be out of your hair, soon as you fancy...” he began, backing up a step and making it plain that if his advances were not welcome he could take them elsewhere.

“No,” she interrupted, surprising him one more time today when she asked with pleading eyes. “Take me with you?”

_...Present..._

“He was strangely reluctant at first.” Elizabeth sighed at the memories as clear in her mind now as the days such events had occurred. “About letting me on his ship again, nevermind letting me in his heart,” she explained. “Though I had proven before I couldn’t necessarily be trusted, I suppose.”

“He was the first to call you a pirate,” recalled Will, watching as the smile on his old lover’s face grow wider.

“Yes.” She laughed lightly, “Yes, he was. Perhaps that was half the reason it was so difficult to accept how I felt about him, because it frightened me how well he knew me, and with such ease.” She sighed.

“Sticking to what we know is often easier than jumping into something new,” Will agreed with her, “but sometimes it’s when you take the chance on something or someone that you find the happiness you barely knew could exist before that moment,” he said, spinning a ring around the third finger of his left hand that Elizabeth was sure she had never seen before.

“From Isis?” she guessed, sure then that she must be one of very few people who could cause a blush in the cheeks of the Flying Dutchman’s Captain.

“Yes.” He nodded. “She knew of you before I ever spoke a word, you know?” he explained. “It was so strange to feel what I do for her when you were always there...”

“Yes, exactly!” Elizabeth agreed, the both of them finding it almost amusing now that they had been such fools, so afraid that their deepest friendship would be irretrievable when their romance died for the sake of others they loved more in that way.

“Please, tell me all about her, about Isis,” said Elizabeth, settling down comfortably to hear the tale of Will’s big romance aboard the Dutchman, like a child ready for a bedtime story.

With a smile, he complied to her wishes and began;

“Well, as all good pirate tales begin, it was a dark and stormy night, and we came upon a shipwreck...”


	2. Romantic Tales

Elizabeth sat listening intently as Will continued to tell the tale of how he had allowed a woman onto the Flying Dutchman and consequently fallen in love with her. Far from jealousy bubbling within her, she felt only joy to know that her dearest and oldest friend had found such happiness despite the life he had been condemned to.

“Many of the men she had sailed with were not happy about having a woman aboard, and even less so a white witch,” he was explaining now, with such a light in his eyes as he spoke of Isis. “It seemed they genuinely believed she was the cause of the shipwreck, but it was the most ridiculous of suggestions. Her own brother perished in the disaster, alongside so many crew members... In any case I would not and could not turn her away.”

“And she became a part of your crew instead of going ashore with the other survivors,” said Elizabeth with a smile. “She must love you a great deal.”

“I believe so.” He smiled just the same. “And being as she is, the mystic powers she possesses, she shall remain forever young as I do. Oh, Elizabeth, I didn’t..” he began to feel guilt when he realised what he might’ve implied, that he and Isis were so much better suited than the two of them could be now.

“Please don’t apologise, Will,” his old love urged him, her smile never wavering a moment. “I do understand. We neither of us could have been truly happy together as things stood, and I’m overjoyed that you have someone to share your life with, in whatever form it takes,” she promised. “Truly, I mean that.”

“I know,” he agreed with a nod. “I know it because I feel the same for you, Elizabeth,” he told her kindly. “Somehow I knew that you and Jack would find a way,” he said honestly. “Though you have yet to tell me how exactly you became... more than friends,” he said thoughtfully then, finding it all the more amusing when Elizabeth began to blush.

“It all happened so gradually really, the realisation that we treated each other differently to any other person we knew, and then came the day when pretending we were anything but in love became impossible...”

_...Nine years ago..._

Elizabeth stood leant against the railings on the Black Pearl contemplating the compass in her hands. It was not a normal compass, but Jack’s special possession that was supposed to direct a person to what they most wanted in the world. Half the time it just seemed to spin wildly, being of no use at all, and making Jack quite cross. Elizabeth suspected it was being erratic in such a way at the moment, which was how the compass had come to be hers.

It was only a couple of days ago when the Captain had flung the item into her hands, declaring it an ‘infernal contraption’ that he had no use for anymore. Elizabeth decided he meant for her to keep the compass and had decided to see if she might use it herself. She was as uncertain as anyone about what her heart desired right now. A part of her thought perhaps the compass would point her in the direction of the Flying Dutchman where her husband resided. On the other hand she craved real food that they had been lacking onboard for some time. A third idea that came to Elizabeth was that perhaps her heart really desired treasure, as any good pirate would, but none of these seemed to be true.

It was with some consternation that the Pirate King came to realise that whenever she held the compass up, opening the lid to observe its direction, it spun at all angles for a moment before settling in one very definite direction.

It brought a frown to her face the first couple of times it happened. She told herself it was a mistake, shook the thing and tried again. Now after two whole days, Elizabeth was still finding that no matter which way she faced or where she was on the ship, the needle on the compass always sought out one direction in which one man always stood; Captain Jack Sparrow.

It was true enough that they had become good friends, and he was the most determined flirt she had ever known in her life. They laughed and joked together, watched each others back in a fight, and clearly cared a great deal for each other, but as yet there had been nothing said about a change in relationship between them.

One kiss had occurred, the day she requested to board the Black Pearl as a crew member once again. Jack had seemed surprised but nonetheless enjoyed the experience, in fact, Elizabeth was fairly certain he had almost felt guilty when he realised what they had done. Since then not so much as a hug had occurred between them, and that was fine, except the compass said differently.

With a look of determination, Elizabeth shook the navigation device in her hands one more time and flipped it open, glancing down to see the needle track a while then land very definitely in the direction of the helm where Jack stood now, discussing something with Gibbs.

Given that the only other explanation was she had a sudden urge to be close to the ships first mate (a lovely man in his way but by no means desirable to a woman such as Elizabeth) she must conclude that she was, for lack of a better term, in love with Jack.

It wasn’t such an awful realisation for Elizabeth, since she had been toying with the idea on some level for a while now, though never completely seriously. She was married to Will, for all that was worth the way things stood, and she had always thought she was of a higher class than a person like Jack Sparrow, but he had proven a few times he was far more decent than a lot of other pirates. Besides, was she not a pirate herself these days? Did Elizabeth not find some pride in the title, in fact?

It was then she began to wonder, had Jack given her his compass claiming it broken because it would only point in her direction whilst in his hands? That was quite a fat-headed thing to think and she knew it, but he did favour her with certain special attentions not shown to the rest of the crew. Some might say that was just because she was the only woman on board ship, and a former fine young lady too, but Elizabeth couldn’t really believe that was all there was to it. In any case, the more she considered it, she more she realised he did spend a great amount of time with her over and above even other women at any port where they chose to dock...

“Only one way to know for sure,” she decided in a moments boldness, snapping the compass shut and striding determinedly towards the helm.

Unfortunately, the two men up by the wheel hadn’t a clue she was there, approaching as she was from behind them. In a moment that could only be described as inopportune, Elizabeth took the final step at the exact moment Jack spun around to come down, arm outstretched in some flamboyant gesture or other. He hit Elizabeth full force across the middle, sending her sprawling backwards down the small flight of stairs and landing in a rather inelegant heap on the deck.

The blow she suffered was fairly minor though the shock of it had knocked the breath clean out of poor Elizabeth. Her head barely knocked the desk when she landed and consequently she was certain to be fine in but a moment, if only the world would stop spinning and she could breathe again.

“Lizzie!” the call went up in Jack’s own voice as he and Gibbs rushed to her aid.

Honestly, she couldn’t make out a thing they were saying, gabbling over the top of each other as they were, both making such a fuss. She fought to tell them she was fine but still her chest strained with a need for air she could not find. Still, this caused her minor concern next to the panic that seemed to be present in Jack’s eyes. Gibbs face showed its usual worry over the precious woman on board as he asked if she was alright, but poor Jack, he looked so entirely frightened, it made Elizabeth worry all the more.

Her hand went to her head and came away clean, no blood spilt there and she saw no other evidence of any such injury she’d endured. As she forced herself to breathe, she found she really didn’t feel so bad at all, hardly feeling a thing after her tumble. She was about to say as much when she suddenly found herself lifted from the ground, straight into the arms of her Captain.

“Mr Gibbs, set a course for the nearest land!” he barked, as serious as Elizabeth had ever known him to be, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung on tight for fear of being dropped. “Miss Swann will need a doctor!” he said definitely as he carried her away.

“Really, Jack...” she tried to protest that she was fine, but apparently he would not hear of it.

“Hush, luv. You’re going to be alright,” he told her worriedly as he took her carefully down the steps to the cabin beneath.

Above them, the men ran back and forth on deck, changing course and heading for land, as instructed. Elizabeth was a little too overwhelmed by the turn of events to say much as she was laid down on a bed with a gentleness she barely knew Jack possessed. He cared for her, she had known it for a long time now, though he would like to deny it she was certain, as she had much argued with herself regarding her feelings for him. Of course, true colours were showing now as Jack moved away from her, returning a moment later with a bottle of rum in his hands.

“Should be brandy for shock but it’ll have to do,” he said as he hunted around for a glass to pour a measure into, but Elizabeth’s hand on his arm stopped him sharply.

“Jack, please,” she urged him, a smile about her lips that she could not help. “I really am fine,” she insisted, glad to have her breath back enough to tell him before he worked himself up into a state of complete panic. “It’s very sweet of you to make such a fuss over me but I am completely well,” she assured him one more time before he had the chance to argue the point.

Now that he stopped and paid attention, it ought to be clear to the Captain that his young lady friend spoke the truth. Had she broken bones or injuries of any severity she’d hardly be sitting herself upright on his bed and smiling in such a way. Besides, she had taken many a tumble in all manner of fights and scrapes they’d found themselves in since he’d known her, probably take more than a fall down a few steps to cause her much harm.

“Right then,” he said with a nod, contemplating first her delicate hand on his arm and then the bottle he held in his hand.

Within a moment he had the rum uncorked and had gulped down a healthy amount before making himself meet her eyes.

“Don’t say this much,” he told her then, too seriously for her liking, “and if you tell the crew I did today, I shall have thee pitched off the Pearl in a dinghy faster than you can say Jack’s a swine, savvy?” he told her firmly pointed a finger at her, “but... ‘m sorry, Elizabeth” he muttered the most important part, though she could not fail to hear him in a room where only the two of them were and with him so close still.

“Why ever should you be sorry, Jack?” she asked him honestly. “Unless you are now feeling guilty for some elaborate plot that has resulted in my being in your cabin, on your bed,” she said with a pointed look that only made him seem more guilty somehow.

“Ah, force of habit?” he offered as an excuse for bringing her here when she had her own room close by that he might’ve taken her too. “And no, apology wasn’t for that, more for the fact I... well, I don’t make a habit of hitting ladies,” he said, seeming quite unlike himself as he put the rum bottle back on the table and shifted awkwardly.

“Jack, it wasn’t as if you meant to strike me,” said Elizabeth with a chuckle she could barely hold in. “And believe me, if you had, I would have given just as good as I got,” she said cockily, glad when his usual smirky smile returned to his lips. “It was an accident, that is all, and I quite forgive you for it.”

Elizabeth wasn’t sure she understood the look that crossed over Jack’s face then. Somehow, in spite of her forgiveness freely given, he still looked oddly guilty about something. It might’ve worried her at another time, some months ago, before she had come to care so much, trust so much in this man. As it was, it only confused the former Miss Swann to no end as the Captain turned away from her, turned back about to speak and then changed his mind and looked away again.

With a frown she could not help, Elizabeth shifted to the edge of the bed and stood herself up, so that the next time Jack spun around he could not help but come face to face with her. The realisation seemed to startle him.

“You got up,” he said pointlessly. “Well, must be feeling better then.” He smiled though less than genuinely as far as Elizabeth could tell. “Seems though that you were never feelin’ worse, so better would be all relative, and all the better for it, eh?” he rattled out in his usual way of riddles, as he began backing up towards the door.

“Jack,” said Elizabeth, fixing him with a look. “What is going on?” she asked.

“Going on with what, luv? Not an idea what you could be drivelling on about, Lizzie,” he told her with a random gesture of his hand. “Do tell a fella if its important, eh?”

For some reason he seemed to have a want to get away from her. Since nothing real and actual scared Jack Sparrow that much, Elizabeth fast came to the conclusion that it was something far from the physical that had him so rattled. Her mind went back to the moments before she had been knocked flying from the steps and brought here by her Captain. She was about to begin a very serious conversation with Jack, about the compass, and about so much more than that. If he had realised such a thing, if he was thinking the very same way she was, perhaps that was what was making him so jumpy. After all, she fancied such a man had never truly been in love before. Women he had been with by the dozen, she was sure, but he never spoke of love.

“Jack, why did you give me your compass?” she asked him straight, holding the very item she spoke of in her outstretched hand. “With it being such a prized possession I fail to make sense of why you would give it away so easily.”

“’S broken, darlin’.” He shrugged. “Simple as that.”

“So you said, yes,” she replied with a single nod, “but I have seen no evidence of this,” she continued, approaching him.

Picking up one of his hands, Elizabeth placed the compass in Jack’s palm and stepped back just one step. The look upon her face was half way caught between a challenge or a dare of some kind, and perhaps a shade of hope that the Captain could not fathom at all. She wanted him to open the compass in front of her, and that he did not much fancy to do. Elizabeth, of course, was not one to give a man a choice when it came to what she wanted.

“Oh,” she said, a hand to her ample chest as she tripped back another step towards the bed. “Oh, I do feel strange, I...” she breathed erratically as she wavered far more than the ship would do in such calm waters.

Immediately, Jack was at her side, one arm catching her easily around the waist and keeping her on her feet. She smiled to herself as she let her head loll back a moment, selling the act for all it was worth. So worried for her welfare was Jack, he hadn’t a notion she had purposefully flipped open the box in his hand, and when her head came back up, face close to his, he was still unaware of what was happening until her eyes shifted to the hand that held the compass.

“Bugger,” Jack swore as he looked the same way she was, knowing already that the needle would point in no direction but Elizabeth’s own, though given the closeness of the two of them it was actually showing that the two of them together was perhaps more what he truly desired.

“Well, Captain Jack Sparrow.” She smiled, in no hurry to escape his grasp apparently as her arms went around his neck and his eyes returned to hers. “It appears we have a heading,” she said in such a way as to tempt.

It wasn’t as if Jack took much encouragement at the best of times and within moments his lips were against hers, taking her breath away in the best way possible. Elizabeth felt her knees go weak for real this time and was glad of the bed behind her to take her weight as they both fell over together, still attached at the lips.

It was a few moments later when Elizabeth suddenly found her eyes open, arms empty, and lips without company. Jack was still beside her but had backed off considerably, with the oddest expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as he leaned back away from her, seemingly expecting something to happen that did not.

“I was actually waiting for you to slap me.” he admitted, “Happens a lot.” He shrugged, making her laugh as she reached for a handful of his shirt and dragged him in closer again.

“Why should I want to hurt you in such a way?” she asked, her voice too soft to her own ears as she continued. “I... I think I love you, Jack,” she admitted, feeling strange about saying it and yet it was a huge relief to have the truth out in the open at last.

“That is excellent news, Lizzie,” he said then, cocky as ever with gold teeth flashing as he grinned at her. “’Cause I’m pretty sure I might just be in love with you too,” he admitted, in a round about way, right before their lips met a second time.

Now nobody was for backing off or backing out, not this time.

_...Present..._

“I think it came as quite a shock to both of us, but more so to Jack, that he could care for anyone more than he cared about himself,” said Elizabeth with a smile that she saw reflected on Will’s own lips.

“You always saw more good in him that anyone else ever could,” he told her, “and yet, in all his chivalry, it came to you, Elizabeth, to tell me what Jack could not dare to?” he said, one eyebrow raised, fun and mischief twinkling in his eyes.

Elizabeth saw that he was only teasing and laughed along with him then.

“You really shouldn’t be so mean,” she admonished him. “For all that he seems, you know, Jack is a good man at heart.”

“I know,” her best friend agreed easily, such love in his eyes for her still, albeit it very different to the romantic adoration with which he had once gazed at her. “I could not be happy in the thought of you spending your life with him were that not true,” he told her, causing a warmth in Elizabeth’s heart that she hadn’t quite been expecting.

Will’s approval of her choice in life partner should not matter so very much, after all, he was her previous lover and husband, and the chances of his understanding her moving on from him to Jack had been unlikely at best. Today she had learnt the truth, that he understood her feelings completely, and shared them since meeting his beloved Isis. It was more than she ever could have hoped for to have Will, a man she had always and would always love as a best friend, approve of the choices she had made and still care for her after all they had been through.

“So, will you tell me more of your adventures aboard the Pearl?” he asked, when she seemed quiet too long.

Elizabeth smiled, as she began to do just that, strangely glad to put off the other piece of news she had to give him. Despite her gladness at his understanding of her and Jack’s relationship, she couldn’t be certain he would take her other announcement so well. Delaying the inevitable seemed pointless, but it was all she could do right now.


	3. Happy Endings

“Will, you’re staring at me,” said Elizabeth feeling just a little strange when he continued to look at her in such a manner without saying a word.

It was fine when she was telling her tales of her adventures aboard the Pearl, but she was now waiting for some response from him and none was forthcoming. It made her strangely nervous somehow.

“I apologise, Elizabeth,” he said at last, shaking his head as if to clear some mist that had settled there. “Truly, I had no wish to make you so uncomfortable. I was just wondering at how beautiful you still are,” he told her, at which she reached out to slap him playfully across the arm.

“Will!” Elizabeth complained, trying not to blush. “You really should not say such things, and all completely untrue,” she told him, turning her face away.

“I shall always see beauty in you, Elizabeth, no matter what you say,” her old lover insisted, as she peered at him from behind her long blonde hair. “You are so good and kind, beautiful inside and out,” he promised her.

“Such a good person would have felt worse about going back on our wedding vows,” she said with a pointed look. “Though we both had our reasons, of course.”

“Your goodness was proven to be far greater than my own,” Will told her. “Your guilt appears to far outweigh mine, though it should not. In that respect, you can never really be a pirate, Elizabeth, because your heart is too good.” He chuckled then as he had a thought. “I can’t imagine Jack was so concerned about my feelings, when the two of you... grew closer,” said Will with a look, which only served to change Elizabeth’s mood from bashfully shy to entirely cross in a mere moment.

“You’re wrong,” she said definitely, quite distressed by his thinking ill of her man.

Of course, there had been many an occasion before their new relationship began when Elizabeth herself might have questioned how loyal Jack Sparrow really could be to a friend, a lover, or anyone really. She knew better now, and yet she knew she ought not to be so very angry at Will for not understanding, after all, he had not been here to see the changes in Jack that she had borne witness to over the years.

“Perhaps I do my old friend a disservice then,” the fellow Captain considered with a tilt of his head. “After all, Jack did save me over himself on that faithful day with Davy Jones,” he considered.

“He did.” Elizabeth nodded, feeling it best not to mention the fact that Jack had explained to her _she_ was his only reason for acting as he had. “He does care, Will, and not only about me. He was concerned for your feelings too, I know he was,” she told him, quite determined that he must understand. “We had a great many lengthy discussions on the topic of it...”

_...Eight and a half years ago..._

“But really, there is no getting out of the fact that I am a married woman,” said Elizabeth with a heavy sigh, suffering another bout of guilt that so often followed a night spent in the arms of her lover.

“Course there is, luv,” insisted Jack, as they lay together in his bed, his arms around her from behind holding her close to him.

“How?” she asked, turning over in his embrace so suddenly she almost cracked him in the nose with her head. “Even the great Jack Sparrow... _Captain_ Jack Sparrow,” she corrected herself with a smile the very next moment. “Even you cannot talk your way out of such a thing,” she insisted, fingers absently playing with the beads hanging in his hair.

“See, now, that’s where you’re wrong,” he assured her, though it took a moment's thinking before he had any further words to say.

Elizabeth didn’t entirely believe he could come up with any possible excuse for her behaviour. She had tried often enough, and though she reasoned that her love for Jack or his for her could not be helped, it made her feel no less bad for cheating on poor Will. In effect he had died for her, and would come ashore specifically to her after ten years at sea. How she was supposed to justify her seeing another man for all that time, she hadn’t a notion, and highly doubted even the highly-skilled wordsmith that was Captain Jack Sparrow would get them out of this without a sword fight taking place and more than just hearts getting broken.

“Ah, now, see,” said Jack at last, moving to prop himself up on one elbow and waving his another arm about in his usual random gestures as he explained. “When yourself and dear William were wed, it was by Barbossa, as Captain of the ship,” he reminded Elizabeth of what she already knew. “Only you was here, on the Pearl, which then belonged and shall always belong to me, so he wasn’t a Captain.” He shook his head. “Therefore, he cannot ‘ave legally married you,” he said with a triumphant grin that lasted for all of five seconds until he realised Elizabeth still looked unconvinced.

“But you didn’t have a ship when you first came to Port Royal,” she told him sadly. “We were still supposed to think of you as Captain even then.”

“Well,” Jack considered, “that was different,” he excused the hole in his plan, but it was clear Elizabeth was too smart for him and would not be fobbed off with such an excuse. “Alright, new idea,” he declared, snapping his fingers as it came to him. “Now, technically speaking, you must’ve vowed 'til death do you part and all that, right?” he asked her at which his lover nodded her head.

“We did,” she agreed, propping herself up in similar fashion to him now as she became intrigued by what tale he might spin out of this, what reasons he could possibly come up with to save her skin and make her feel less of a traitor. Pirate was something Elizabeth could bear to be known as, but somehow traitor to her husband was so much worse than any other kind of liar or thief.

“Well, death did you part,” Jack pointed out, miming a sword through the chest as Will had suffered at the hands of Davy Jones, “and things, not the least of them me, sort of put you back together a bit, for the most part through my being a blind fool,” he said with a look that made Elizabeth giggle despite the seriousness this conversation ought to warrant, “but the point of it is, in the eyes of the world, not counting you and I and the similar,” he went on, in his usual rambley style, “dear old Will is dead as a dodo. Therefore, marriage dissolved, savvy?”

It took a moment for Elizabeth to unravel so much information and make proper sense of what he was saying, but as with most of Jack’s mad ideas there was a seed of realism at the base of them. He spun pretty lies and outlandish falsehoods, but often as not there was reality at the bottom of it all, something of the truth buried deep within.

“I suppose what you say is true,” she considered, liking the fact that he was at least trying his best to ease the burden on her guilt, “but are you willing to explain that to Will?” she asked with a sigh. “To the Captain of the Flying Dutchman who shall have been waiting ten years to see me again?” she asked of him, wiping the proud and cocky look off his face in a second with the news he may have to be the one to tell such a desperate man he’d stolen away his pretty young bride.

“Can’t say as it thrills me, luv, no,” admitted Jack, “But for you Lizzie? I’ll go the ends of the Earth if you ask,” he promised, as sincere as she had ever known him to be. “After all, did the same for me once, didn’t you?” he reminded her, his hand at her hair as he leaned in close to her and planted a kiss on her lips.

She looked too sad when he pulled back to see her face again. Given the sentiment of what he’d said, he had probably expected a smile at least, but Elizabeth could not find one. She loved that he cared for her that much, loved her so much as to make such a declaration, but the reminder of going to worlds end to bring him back from Davy Jones locker only served as a reminder of her own deceit. She was the one that had condemned Jack to the locker in the first place, she who had caused his suffering and pain. Though he had forgiven her time and time again, she wasn’t sure she would ever completely forgive herself.

“I owed you that much, Jack,” she said, eyes looking down and unable to meet his own right now. “For the longest time, I actually believed it was only guilt that made me want to get you back. I was such a fool,” she said as she glanced up and found him still watching her.

“Foolish is as foolish does, my dear,” he told her easily, apparently completely unphased as they spoke of her past crime against him. “I don’t hold it against you,” he promised, lifting her chin and making her face him when she tried not to. “You did what you had to, luv. Anyway, could be that day I realised for sure what you was capable of, and how much I bloody loved you for it.” He smiled, a grin full of gold that soon had her expression matching his, though she could not quite comprehend how such a terrible act had led to his loving her so much.

“That was really the moment you first suspected it?” she checked, not sure she quite believed him.

“Well, maybe not the very first,” he confessed, though he left that particular point there as he flipped onto his back, pulling her easily on top of him, “but if Captain Jack Sparrow was ever going to settle for only one woman,” he said, one finger raised to demonstrate his point, “stood to reason she had to be something special,” he said, pulling her close enough to kiss, “stood to reason she had to be...”

...Present...

“...a pirate at heart.”

Elizabeth was stunned to realise that she and Will were no longer alone, and that Jack must have been stood there some time to hear the tale she was telling, going so far as to speak the words from years go that she had been about to say herself. Will looked equally surprised and yet pleased by the presence of his old friend, looking hardly any different to the last time they had met.

“Well, if it isn’t the Captain of the Flying Dutchman, turned up again like a bad penny.” Jack faked disdain at the sight of Will, though a smirk came through that could not be helped.

“And the Captain of the Black Pearl,” said Will as he got to his feet. “Unless of course there has been another unfortunate case of mutiny?” he smiled, unable to help teasing Jack over his terrible habit of having his precious ship taken out from under him.

“Not since we let Barbossa have command of Lizzie’s Empress,” he confirmed, with a random gesture of his hand. “How’s life amongst the dead, lad?”

“Better than you might think,” his friend told him with a smile, the two of them unable to keep up such a facade any longer, as they offered each other a hand to shake and greeted one another as the friends they would always be.

“Well, young William,” said Jack with a grin that flashed both white and gold. “Nice to see you greetin’ me here without a blade in your hand,” he noted. “After all, did sort of steal your wife out from under you... in a manner of speaking.” He smirked, unable to help being cocky about it, in spite of the fact Elizabeth had been trying to suggest there was guilt on the part of her lover in all this.

Will was about to answer, and Elizabeth about to cut in at the same moment, though neither got a chance to speak as a fourth person was suddenly present, stepping in between the other three and gazing up at the one face he did not recognise.

“You must be Captain William Turner,” said the young boy, squinting against the sun’s bright light.

“I am,” said Will, feeling a little self-conscious as he glanced from the face of a strangely familiar boy to first Elizabeth who seemed to be embarrassed or guilty, and then Jack who wouldn’t quite meet his eye either. “And you are?” he asked the boy at length, almost certain he already knew and yet needing confirmation just in case.

“Master James William Weatherby Sparrow,” said the boy, removing his tricorn hat and bowing with a flourish that ought to make his father proud, which it clearly did.

“Um, yes,” said Elizabeth, shifting awkwardly as Will’s eyes met her own. “There was one more tale I was meaning to tell you...”

_...Eight years ago..._

The haul of treasure was substantial, not exactly enough to live on forever, but worth a celebration. The crew of the Black Pearl had found port at Tortuga and were currently enjoying the delights that the place had to offer. Much merriment was taking place, a den full of rum soaked pirates, chasing women who loved to be chased, it was really quite the party.

Captain Jack himself had of course left the other women alone today, as he had been doing for some time. Though he and Elizabeth were not officially wed and such, he was capable of some fidelity, besides the girl was right there at the bar, able to see everything. Trouble of it was, she didn’t seem to be paying that much attention to what she could see, and that wasn’t like her at all. It bothered Jack that she was out of sorts and worse that she wasn’t even drinking...

“Come along, dear Lizzie,” he said as he dropped down onto the stool beside her, almost missing completely in his drunkenness. “Did a good job today, ought to be enjoying yourself!” he declared, waving his arm at the scenes of frivolity behind them.

Elizabeth barely glanced at him nevermind the crowd beyond. She wasn’t in the mood for this, and she had her reasons why. She had hoped Jack might notice a difference in her, but she ought to have known better. As much as he had changed around her, as much as they were supposed to be in love, she couldn’t really expect him to be anything but what he was. Honestly, she never wanted him to change, and she knew he loved her for being as she was too. Unfortunately, nobody could make promises and guarantees that things would never be different to the way they were now...

“Jack, can we talk?” she asked, twisting in her seat to face him, though she found him barely listening.

“Talk, luv?” he said with a grin. “Where’s the fun in that? Let’s dance instead?” he said, practically lifting her off the stool before she could argue and spinning her around in the limited space available in the tavern that was heaving with people they knew and those they didn’t as well.

“Jack, stop it!” Elizabeth argued, pushing him away with some considerable force that he was not expecting and almost sending him sprawling. “Why can’t you just listen to me?!” she said angrily, turning to storm away but not actually moving as he called after her.

“I’m listening!” he told her. “What’s so bloody important?” he said, getting angry himself now that she was putting somewhat of a dampener on his good mood.

“I’m pregnant!” Elizabeth announced perhaps a little too loudly as she whirled around to glare at him, several patrons of the tavern paying attention by now as well.

Jack’s eyes went comically wide at the news, his head quirking to one side like an animal or a child trying to puzzle something out. His mouth opened and closed three times without any sound coming out and still Elizabeth stood and stared, waiting for any reaction beyond mute confusion.

“Right,” said Jack at length. “Er... Is it mine?” he asked, knowing immediately it was exactly the three works he should not have said at all, not least because the next thing he felt was Lizzie’s hand striking him hard as anything across the face, this time actually knocking him onto his backside upon the chair right behind him

By the time Jack had scrambled back onto his feet and lamented briefly on the bottle of rum in his hand that was now smashed to nothing, Elizabeth was all but gone from his sight. She was out of the door before he had much chance to move and was striding away from the tavern at a hell of a pace when he got outside. He called her name three times though she responded to none of this and only actually stopped when he managed to catch up to her and made a grab at her arm.

“Let go of me!” she said angrily, pulling away. “Was once not enough?” she said, bringing back her hand as if to strike him again.

“Now I know I deserved that,” said Jack ducking away just in case the second hit came anyway, “but it was a shock, luv!” he tried to tell her.

Elizabeth looked not a bit sympathetic regarding his suprise, but then why should she? It was as much a shock to her as it had been to Jack to find she was carrying his child, quite the last thing she had been expecting in fact. To have him ask if it really was his child she was carrying hurt more than anything.

“Who did you think the father was?” she asked crossly. “Ragetti? Pintel? Mr Gibbs?” She laughed without any humour in it. “Cotton’s parrot, perhaps?”

“Well, now you’re just being silly,” Jack pointed out, regretting it immediately as Elizabeth hit him with a glare that somehow felt like it struck harder than ever her hand had done. “Lizzie, please,” he urged her as he ducked away from her a bit, “I’m drunk, I didn’t know what I was saying.”

“You’re always drunk, and you never know what you’re saying!” said Elizabeth, putting her hands to her face and sighing tiredly, knowing she was just making Jack’s point for him.

It wasn’t his fault and she knew he didn’t mean it. For a hundred and one other things he’d said without thinking she had always forgiven him. The look on his face as he’d come chasing after her proved he already knew he’d been a terrible fool. If she thought for a moment there was any cruelness to his words or genuine disbelief in his mind, she would be hurt beyond all reason, but she knew better.

Shock did strange things to people, it had certainly felt strange to Elizabeth to realise she was with child. Her life really had not tended the way she had ever imagined. As a little girl, she had seen a boring life laid out before her, with a simple marriage and a brood of children, and she had hated that idea. As a teen she had aspirations of adventure and fun with Will who would be her hero, and yet things had taken another turn, brought her another kind of hero, a completely different kind of adventure.

“Come on now, Lizzie,” Jack urged her, a hand on her shoulder she felt she ought to shrug off out of principal, but she didn’t really want to. “Tears and tantrums is no good and good for nothing now.”

“Why couldn’t you just be normal and happy about our news?” She sighed, looking frustrated still as she turned to look his way.

“Normal?” He smirked annoyingly. “I’m Captain Jack Sparrow, luv. Normal isn’t exactly what I do,” he reminded her, almost managing to get a smile out of her. “As for happy, well..” he said, spreading his arms wide with a flourish. “You seen this grin on my face, have you? Quite fancy the idea of being a father if I’m going to be an honest man.”

“I don’t know if I want to make an honest man of you, Jack.” Elizabeth smiled playfully back at him, resisting the urge to fly into his arms to be held close. “Surely it is a dishonest man you can always trust more,” she reminded him of words he so often spoke himself.

“For you, dearie,” he said, moving closer to her when it seemed she would not come to him, “I think we can work something proper out.” He smiled, as his arms slid around her body and pulled her close.

Somehow, when Jack looked at her that way, Elizabeth completely forgot how to argue with him.

_...Present..._

William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, was somewhat in awe of the sight that lay before him now. Elizabeth Swann, the woman he had once thought to spend the rest of his life with, loving her unconditionally and taking care of her forever, was now sat alongside the new man in her life, his arms around her illiciting a smile on her face the like of which Will had never seen before.

Captain Jack Sparrow was the most unlikely man to settle down to just one woman, and yet Elizabeth had been the one to tame him. Of course, that phrase was not entirely apt, for as much as she had snared the pirate and made him faithful only to her, Jack had brought out the adventurous side of Elizabeth to its full. Together they were the perfect match, and Will saw it better than anyone, being as close as he had been to them both for so long. Their son was the perfect combination of both his parents and a credit to them. One day he would be a great Captain just like his father, his grandfather, and the man he was already calling his Uncle Will, despite only having known him for a matter of hours.

As little James ran along the shoreline, faking sword fights with adversaries unknown, a wooden replica of a sword in his hand, the tide rushed in almost taking his feet out from under him. Jack was soon up and headed down the beach to move the lad away from the edge, and to better instruct him on the skills he must learn to be the great pirate he longed to be one day.

“He is a credit to you, Elizabeth.” Will smiled as he looked her way and found her smiling too.

“They are quite the pair to live with.” She rolled her eyes, laughing lightly as James got the better of his father in a moment and almost knocked him to the ground, purely by chance. “But I would not change things for the world,” she swore, pulling the wrap she now wore tighter around her shoulders, the warm breeze turning cooler and the sun beginning to sink in the sky.

“No, neither would I,” her old friend agreed as he looked out across the ocean, knowing it would not be long before he must leave here for another ten years at sea.

“Will, where will you go next time your day ashore comes around?” asked Elizabeth with genuine curiosity.

He looked thoughtful a moment before he looked back at her again and replied very seriously.

“I shall be here, if you wouldn’t mind it,” he told her. “You and Jack are the best friends I have ever known. I should like very much to meet with you again, find out what sort of man James has grown into, for he shall be that by the time I return.”

“Yes, he shall.” Elizabeth nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed by the realisation that her precious little boy would be all grown up by the time he saw his Uncle Will again. “And of course we shall meet you here, if that is what you wish.” She smiled, her hand going to his shoulder. “Truly, Will, you mean as much to me as we might to you. I should be honoured to know that you would want to spend your one day on land with our family. You are part of it, in the best of ways,” she said, pleased when his hand came up to cover hers and squeezed her fingers.

They understood each other, as they always had before. The romantic love they believed existed between them as teens was long gone, but left in its place was a friendship, a familial sort of bond that would never, could never die. Ten years hence, they would meet again like this and be as pleased to see each other as they were now, that was for certain.

_...Several hours later..._

As the sun sunk low in the sky, William Turner, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, knew it was time to leave the land and return to the sea that owned him. His goodbyes said to the friends who were as much family to him as anyone ever could be, he set about returning to his ship, as Elizabeth, Jack, and James waved him off from the shoreline. Back on the Dutchman, he would fall into the embrace of his beloved Isis, and sail with her at his side for ten happy years before returning to this place for a further reunion.

Little James ran by the water's edge as the ship departed, determined to watch the Dutchman just as long as he could until it disapeared completely from sight. His parents followed behind at a more sedate pace, their arms around each other.

“So, that’s him gone for another ten years then,” said Jack. “Can’t say as I’ll miss him.”

“Jack!” Elizabeth reprimanded him immediately. “How can you say such a thing?”

“Easy as you please, luv,” he told her, ensuring she stayed close to him beneath his arm as they continued walking. “Can’t have him deciding to swoop in, holding hands with other fellas birds, can we?” he said at which Elizabeth gawped.

“Oh, so that is what this is about?” She laughed, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. “You were jealous?”

“Don’t be so ridiculous, Lizzie,” he said, though the expression on his face proved he was lying. “I am Captain Jack Sparrow,” he told her, as if she didn’t know, startling her to the core a moment later as he easily picked her up in his arms and laid a kiss on her lips that took her breath away. “Now, what say you, we get the men to watch the boy awhile?” He grinned in such a way that proved where his mind tended.

“I can’t imagine what you’re suggesting, Captain Sparrow,” said Elizabeth, teasing him as she so often did, since his meaning had been abundantly clear and they both knew it.

“Thought p’haps we ought to give my boy here a playmate,” he told her with an eyebrow raised. “Another nephew or a niece maybe for old Uncle Will to fuss about on his big return?”

Terrible excuse not withstanding, Elizabeth really had no reason and no wish to argue with such a suggestion, and proved she would not as she kissed him with some passion.

The sun set in the distance, and the day was done, ending as happily if not more so than it had started. Elizabeth Swann allowed herself to be carried away to her home, the Black Pearl, to spend the night in her lovers arms, perhaps making a brother or sister for her beloved son. It was not a life she had planned for or ever expected to have, but it was all she ever wanted and more. As she had told Will, she would not change it for the whole world nor all the treasures it held. She and her family were happy, they were fulfilled; they were pirates, and proud.


End file.
